1. Being clean and green has real, bottom-line value. Rigging emissions tests to make cars look cleaner is appalling, and while it may sound like the company was just putting one over on the regulators, the result is more pollution that harms all of us. (The WHO estimated last year that 7 million premature deaths could be linked to air pollution.)

In a strange way, VW’s chicanery only reinforces how important it is for products today to be environmentally safe. This wasn’t a test of how well their cars handle, how fast they go from zero to 60, or how well they protect you in a crash. No, VW was risking its reputation to make everyone believe the cars were cleaner.

This episode has proven that cleaner-burning cars with high fuel efficiency are truly valuable—after all, if you’re willing to cheat to pursue it, it must be worth the risk. But when you stake your reputation on being clean and green, you better make sure that you actually are.

2. Protecting the environment builds trust, and trust is precious capital. Decades ago, a company’s market value was nearly equivalent to its tangible assets—buildings, machinery, materials, financial capital, and so on. In 1975 intangible assets were just 17% of the market value of the S&P 500. But today those proportions are flipped: intangible assets now make up 84% of the market value of the S&P 500. I once asked an audience of 200 financial executives from large consumer products companies if any of them thought that more than half of their company’s value stemmed from tangible assets. Nobody raised a hand.

What exactly is all that intangible value? Some of it is intellectual property. For consumer-facing companies, though, a vast amount of value resides in the brand value, an amorphous measure of how a company’s key stakeholders—its customers and employees foremost—feel about the company or product. Among the many emotions and feelings that tie us to brands, trust is one of the most foundational. How many car buyers will trust VW now?

3. Trust comes from transparency, and transparency is the norm today. While it’s surprising that the company tried to pass off its cars as “clean diesel,” it’s even more surprising that the company’s leadership thought the plan wouldn’t come to light.

We are barreling into a new world of complete openness. We’re more connected than ever, we’re gathering endless data, and the number of cameras recording our behavior seems to be multiplying exponentially. Millennials and Generation Z expect an answer to any question they have about the products and companies they interact with: What’s in this product? Is it toxic? What’s the carbon footprint? Who made it? Were they paid a good wage? How much does the CEO make? Has this company been fined for anything I would find offensive?

Take the example of what’s happening in the food industry. The rise of demand for “clean labels” that tell us what’s in our food is causing major headaches for old-school food and beverage companies. On some level, it all comes back to a harsh reality: trust in all institutions, business in particular, has been eroding for years. We now look for verification before trusting a company. With actions like VW’s, can you blame us?